self employed redundancy advice please

netty_betty_2

just wondered if anyone has any advice or has been in a simular situation, my husband has worked for the same company for 17 years and was told there was no longer any work for him, he is a joiner and worked for the company on a sub contract/self employed basis, he was paid weekly by bacs, they deducted tax, was told were to work, what to do etc, so really was employed by them, does anyone have any advice? would we be able to get any redundancy pay, not sure what our rights are

LittleVoice

In case you missed it - here's my reply from the other thread

"I think you need to check out the actual contractual basis of the relationship. If they were acting as an agency (akin to the way that Brook Street does for instance), then they would have deducted tax and NI (and paid employers NI) but he would not have been classified as an employee by the Inland Revenue.

"If he was not an employee then he would not be able to claim any redundancy money. However, because of the NI contributions paid he would be able to claim contribution based Jobseekers Allowance."

thompsonsom

netty_betty wrote: »

just wondered if anyone has any advice or has been in a simular situation, my husband has worked for the same company for 17 years and was told there was no longer any work for him, he is a joiner and worked for the company on a sub contract/self employed basis, he was paid weekly by bacs, they deducted tax, was told were to work, what to do etc, so really was employed by them, does anyone have any advice? would we be able to get any redundancy pay, not sure what our rights are

Hi

we are asking the same questions as you, as my husband has been employed as a sub-contractor and as now been told he is being laid off but according to a business link site i came across it states the following:

The employment status of those who do work for you has implications for tax and worker rights:

• an employee has a contract of service, eg a contract of employment, with you as an employer
• a contractor has a contract for services where you are the main client business, while a subcontractor has a contract for services with you if you are the main contractor

As such, neither contractors nor subcontractors will normally be considered as your employees. Instead they might be self-employed, an agency worker or employees of another business.
However, even though a worker may be described as a contractor or subcontractor, it is still possible that - under the law - they may actually be considered your employee.
If so, they would therefore have the full range of employment rights, eg the right to claim unfair dismissal and the right to maternity, paternity and adoption leave and pay.
However, getting anyone to acknowledge that you do have rights as a subcontractor working for the same company under the same role as an employee is very difficult.
Any employment lawyers out there able to shed any light on this subject.


Jan